Poem For Yayoi Kusama

when I was a little girl
it was a hundred drawings
and that was just before breakfast
now it's a thousand dots
and I'm an old woman
I do all those before lunch

it used to be fists
punching into my face
but that was just my mother
and that face was just me
way back then
I was smaller and
there was still an outside
to run to

I got naked in public
as a young woman
when New York City wasn't a cliché
and Warhol was still Andy
there are films of this

I returned to Japan
and lived in an asylum
which is where I work today
self check in
that shows courage, understanding
a degree to help and function
I've done circles, curves, everything

red dots, on white
blue dots, on aquamarine
yellow dots, on black
and now there's so many

I paint large circles on floors,
walls, the dresses of little girls
who are really sculptures, molds
dots everywhere, and the girls
look at the world and I can't explain it

maybe they ask why
but they don't demand,
it's different and they're standing